The One Good Deed
by Wanttotravel
Summary: "Have you ever done one good thing?" Luke asked. "I mean, out of all the bad things, is there just one good thing among all of it?"


**Hey there guys! (: I have returned with another one shot! I think this is definitely the darkest and most depressing one I have written so far, but... it's my favorite. Is it wrong that I write sadder things better? I hope not. /: **

**Anyway! Sorry for any mistakes! I wrote this in less than 3 hours, so... yeah. /: **

The rope hanging around his neck was something he never saw as what would take him out. He saw something more... honorable. Maybe fighting a crook. Maybe killed in a war. Maybe... he didn't know. Anything but that. To hide his disappointment, he yawned.

"We keeping you up, Wayland?" Valentine called from somewhere behind him. "Don't worry. You'll be taking a dirt nap real soon." The group of people standing with Valentine laughed, and surprisingly, so did Jace.

Attention was drawn to the man standing to Jace's left when Luke Garroway said, "Anything you would like to say, Lewis?"

"I... I-I want a preacher!" Simon called, trying to delay the inevitable. "You wouldn't deny a man his preacher, would you?"

"Herondale! Come here!" There had been a preacher waiting in the crowd in case of a situation like this.

"Yes, Simon?" He asked the boy standing there. Simon looked so scared. So vulnerable. So young. Jace on the other hand just smirked. He would never let himself look like that. Not even as they were getting ready to drop the floor from under his feet. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

"Hurry up, Lewis!" Valentine shouted.

"Uh- uh. Forgive me!" A tear ran down his cheek as the executioner picked up the rope and pulled. Eric watched as his best friend's life was taken. He immediately started bawling like a baby. Sniffling like a young child.

"Please don't do this! Please!" Eric spotted his wife in the crowd; she was golding her hand over her daughter's eyes and crying even harder then he was; right then Eric decided that he had to be strong for her. "Melanie, I love you so much. Annie, look at daddy. I love you too, more than you will ever know. Please be a good girl for mommy. Okay? Make me proud." After she promised she would, he turned to Luke and said, "Okay. I'm ready."

Now it was Jace's turn. He was starting to get scared of- wait. No. Not scared. Jace wasn't scared of anything... except love. Well, not love in general. Just his love for Clary.

"So, Wayland, have you ever done anything good in your life?" Luke asked, honestly curiously. It was a question many people had always wondered. They had reason to though with all the things he was known for doing- for instance: killing seven men in a saloon and then three more men getting away, and then taking their money; stealing countless amounts of cattle; and now the crime he and two other men were getting killed for- killing Sebastian Verlac and Jonathan Morgenstern, men from Valentine's group of so called law enforcers. "Is there just one good deed among all the bad?"

_*******__ Clary looked so innocent. Her big emerald green eyesstared straight into his gold eyes. "Take me with you. Please. I want to go."_

_"Oh, really now?" He stepped closer to the tiny seventeen year old, pushing her closer to the wall. His hands were on either side of her, so there was no way to escape. He dipped his head down to her neck, grazing his lips along it. _

_"Y-yes." She shuddered at the feeling of it. "Don't leave me here alone. Please, Jace, stay with me." She put her hand on his neck, playing with the short hairs there. "Stay."_

_"Clare, you know I can't do that." He couldn't look at her face as he said this; he knew she would kill all his willpower with that one look. "I have to stay ahead of the law." _

_"Then take me with you." She wrapped her arms around him and pleaded in his ear._

_"Your Pa wouldn't let you go anywhere with a man like me." He nibbled on her ear lobe and reveled in the feeling of her body against his. "I'm a wanted man. It isn't surprising with my devestatingly good looks in the balance," He paused listening to her laughter, "But I have a feeling they wouldn't be doing very enjoyable things with it."_

_Clary said, "My Pa doesn't have to know. And I'm sure you would enjoy all the things I would do to you." _

_Jace was utterly speechless when she said that, so he just ignored that and said, "You would leave everything and everyone here? For me? I have done awful things- you know that!"_

_"Yeah, I do, but I've seen a different you. You saved my life that day at the river." Clary looked at her feet and then whispered almost so quietly Jace didn't hear, "You made me fall in love with you." _

_Jace's head snapped up and he just stared at her. He had heard plenty of girls say that to him, but they had all been drunk, so he didn't believe it. Yes, he had said it back, so the word felt no different than the word 'yes' or 'no' did, but this time, it was different. This time, he believed it, and even though he felt the same way he couldn't say it back. It was like the word was stuck._

_Clary felt a few tears run down her face when Jace said nothing, but as soon as Jace noticed them, he wiped them away quickly and gently. Then he pulled her face to his and kissed her until they both had to pull away gasping for air._

_"If you really feel that way, meet me tonight at the old abandonned train on the east side of town beside the river." He looked at his boots and kicked at the dust. "If you don't come... well, I'll understand." _

_"I'll be there. I promise."She smiled at him and then said, "I have to get home now though. Ma and Pa'll start worryin' if I ain't home soon." She leaned in and kissed his cheek then slipped away from him and headed home._

_"Clare!" Clary turned around and looked at Jace with a hopeful face. "Uh... Dress warmly. It gets real cold at night."_

_Her face fell, "Oh...Okay. I will." She sighed as she walked away. She just wanted to hear him say that he loved her too. Just once would be enough for her; that's all it would take for her to be satisfied. Little did she know that would be the last thing he said to her._

_Jace had arrived a little before dusk and sat in a train car, waiting for her until dark. _

_"Why would she even come? She barely knows you," Doubt whispered in his ear._

_"And if she did know you, would she still love you?" Suspicion questioned._

_"Probably not," Doubt replied._

_"Oh shut up," Jace accidently said aloud._

_Soon after he heard something rustling outside, and not sure who it was, he jumped out of the train car and ran down the tracks, crossed the narrow river, and looked back at the tracks. He saw his little Clary pacing back and forth with her lantern. _

_Jace sat and watched her as she waited patiently for him. He watched as she built a little campfire as it got colder. As she rekindled the fire when it died down. As she slept there, still waiting. She was so faithful. So honest. So good. He realized then that he didn't deserve her. He looked at his red-headed beauty, and then he did what he did best. He left. _

Jace looked at Luke and said, "Yeah. I betrayed the woman I love."

Luke looked at Jace, questioning how that would be a good thing. Jace just smirked, still refusing to show any weakness.

Valentine gave Luke the signal to pull the floor from underneath him.

As Luke pulled the rope, Jace's eyes met the unmmistakable and unforgettable gaze of his little Clary... and he smiled.


End file.
